Carter leaves influential energy, environmental legacy

Energy & Environment

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Carter leaves influential energy, environmental legacy

Former President Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, left a history of pioneering energy and environmental policy.

In his single term in the Oval Office, Carter took a range of actions on issues that remained influential long after his presidency ended, from imposing new wilderness protections to creating the federal Department of Energy during the recurring energy crises of the 1970s.

Carter formally created the department in August 1977, seven months into his presidency, when he signed the Department of Energy Organization Act. The law consolidated a number of existing agencies under the umbrella of the new federal department.

The reorganization was largely in response to the 1973 oil crisis, during which the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an embargo against nations that had backed Israel during the Yom Kippur War the same month.

Amid national anxiety around energy supply, Carter was also an early champion of energy efficiency and specifically the use of renewable energy to achieve American energy independence. One of his most visible efforts was the installation of 32 solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979. The installation came two years after the establishment of tax credits for homeowners installing solar-powered water heaters.

In his remarks marking their installation, he expressed concerns that remain relevant in 2024 about American dependence on foreign imports for energy and called for the U.S. to derive 20 percent of its energy from solar by the year 2000.

“Solar energy will not pollute our air or water. We will not run short of it. No one can ever embargo the Sun or interrupt its delivery to us,” Carter said.

Despite his emphasis on renewable energy, Carter was also a major booster of the domestic coal industry. He was elected by a Democratic coalition that included Southern and Appalachian mine workers that are today solidly Republican, and he touted coal as a resource that would make the U.S. less reliant on oil from the Middle East.

Read more at TheHill.com.

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